Celebrity 'BEYOND' and Above Expectations (as always)‼️‼️‼️🚢❤️🏝️❤️🔥 Great ship, great crew, nice itinerary for those that have already done the ABC cruise, this is the best (of the rest of) the Southern Caribbean.
Celebrity Beyond Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
First Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 22
Helpful Votes: 297
10 Night Ultimate Southern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: April 12, 2024
Ship: Celebrity Beyond
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 9227
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 6 months ago
Review summary
This was our best cruise ever on our 15th with four different cruise lines. I do not see how anyone could ever be disappointed with any Celebrity Edge class ship cruise. Great ship, great crew, nice itinerary for those that have already done the ABC cruise, this is the best of the rest of Southern Caribbean. Four of five ports are great ones! The Celebrity Beyond is a beautiful, large, comfortable, accessible, accommodating, clean, well-designed floating wonderland of earthly delights. We could not be more pleased. I would be happy if cruising never got more luxurious than this. This ship and line are better than ALMOST ALL high-end cruise lines. Yes, you could pay double or triple for only half of the perfection of this cruise vacation, the ship we just got off of today.... It gets no better ‼️‼️‼️Embarkation
Great port in Fort Lauderdale, bettervthan most we have sailed from. If you have a choice between cruising from Fort Lauderdale or Miami, you should choose Ft L every time, trust me. Gentle and un-stressful embarkation starts with an efficient port authority. It is a rare treat to be so comfortable and relaxed on Embarkation day. Great concierge class welcome lunch was worth paying a little more, for E day comfort and enjoyment.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Best food on any cruise, out of our 15 sailings, so it was better than Royal, better than Norwegian, and soooo much better than Oceania! Edge class ships also appear to be the best food in the fleet. So, to beat a horse out of his last breath, Beyond is better than Silhouette or Millennium. Best buffet ever. Nice quiet dining rooms with great variety of experiences. Wonderful service.
Oceanview Café
Best buffet we have enjoyed on our 15 cruises. Fine Meat carving stations, eggs cooked to order, noodles and stir fry unlimited options, clean and cool temps, and finally a buffet with enough seating. I recommend alfresco dining outdoors from breakfast every day before it gets too hot.
Onboard Activities
There were certainly a great number of entertainment options, well-communicated choices and changes, with a variety of things to do, even though my wife and I prefer our relaxation, rest, and solitude when we cruise over the need to be entertained by anyone or anything. Pools were great, solarium awesome, fitness center above adequate in all respects, but our favorite on this ship is the perfect Thermal suite.
⭐️Good tip: On Celebrity ships, if your ship says Thermal Suite, then it is the big good one and worth any extra cost, but if it is called Persian Garden it is too small and not worth any extra cost, so just use a PG after any spa treatment for free.
Entertainment
Beyond has three must see shows, worth every effort to get a good seat, called Stage Door, Elements, and Arte. All three are not to be missed. You can skip the lame magician (aren't they all lame?), the mediocre stand up comic (if they were any good, they would be on tour or be in Las Vegas), but I hear the solo piano guy is fine and the broadway show tune night is quite nice. There is a speakeasy 20's night at Eden but we had to miss it. The two house bands are a bit hit and miss as usual, but as always some of the solo guitarists, violinists, and cellists scattered about the ship are fantastic. Bottom line is, despite my petty bitching, the entertainment on Celebrity Beyond is five stars ⭐️ 🌟 ⭐️ 🌟 ⭐️‼️
Service and Staff
Simply the best at sea, from Captain Kate on down to great cabin stews!
Ship Quality
Celebrity Edge class sets a new standard of affordable luxury. It will be hard to pull back from this level of cruising to return to what now feels like mundane cruise. The same thing happens on Royal once you go Oasis class ships or Grand Suite on any ship, it is tough to go back down. 🤭🫣😬 Specifically, the Beyond is a beautiful, large, comfortable, accessible, accommodating, clean, well-designed floating wonderland of earthly delights. We could not be more pleased. I would be happy if cruising never go more luxurious than this. This ship and line is better than ALMOST ALL high-end cruise lines and you could pay double or triple for half the perfection of this cruise we just got off of today‼️‼️‼️
Cabin / Stateroom
Perfect room, wonderful steward, always clean and well stocked.
Finally someone put plug on the same wall as the head of the bed! Yay‼️
Bring lots of magnet hooks to hang your clothes that need to air dry and swimsuits and zipper bags from. Both cabin door and walls are metal so make full use of magnetic clips and whiteboard for family notes, or even a weekly calendar to keep track of your personal cannot-miss events.
Our room has to mechanical window type of balcony, and rarely used it, would have preferred a real infinite veranda.
Ports of call
Unless you're buying jewelry at a discount, take an uncrowded extra "sea day" & avoid this port.
French side is a nude beach, which is more like a nude SuperWalmart on a Saturday at 9 in the morning anywhere in America, if they herded everyone out into the parking lot and made them strip. I now understand the term "ugly American". I have yet to walk onto a clothing OPTIONAL beach and NOT walked away wishing it had been clothing MANDATORY ‼️😬
Dutch side: One of the nastiest and dirtiest places in the Caribbean.
Excursion notes:
💥💥💥Do not take the Great Bay Beach excursion, as it is easily walking distance from the ship for FREE!
💥💥💥Avoid the Dutch Blonde Beach wine and cheese excursion!
Avoid at all costs‼️🚫🍷🧀🚫
(obtw, the wine tasting on Beyond is great)
Decent wine & cheese pairings were destroyed by a horrible host, eaten alive by self-absorption, who never shut up for one second and spent 2.9 hours of a 3 hour event bragging about his life story about how he became a Malignant Narcissist, which is neither noteworthy nor impressive.
Dr. Love-Myself talked 99% more about how he made his own (disgusting) beer, than either wine or cheese, about which he knew less than nothing.
It took far too long between the next teeny tiny amount of wine to come, apparently so the King Pontificator could tell the frightfully uninteresting story about adding an escape room onto the worst bar and restaurant in st maarten to fleece the tourists even more.
Just look at the pictures I took: there is twice as much cheese on a big mac!
Oh man i hate an excursion host who tries to upsell you CONSTANTLY ‼️‼️‼️‼️😬 Are we clear on this?
Thumbs Up
2
What a lovely French island and I heard nothing but glowing reviews on all excursions here.
Best excursion at any price here is: Chef's Market Discovery excursion
(includes spice market shopping, cooking demonstration, a special lunch, and a private dinner back aboard the ship (the best!), and a tour of the ship's main galley! This cruise ship has kosher-clean kitchen, dude!
Oh man, typing this I am reminded that perhaps we had our best day in St. Lucia!
One of the best ports, towns, and islands. Any excursion, you will love it here.
Excursion: Destination Highlight: Best of Barbados (or something similarly worded...) you cannot go wrong on this island!
Saved the best for last! You can enjoy St Kitts one cruise and then its sister island Nevis on your next visit! Best of the rest of the Southern Caribbean, north ofvthe ABC islands.
Disembarkation
While D day is never easy, and is in fact a horrible day if you do not have a good exit plan, this was one of the easiest we have ever had. There were no long waits, as the luggage tag call number system is very efficient.
All luggage hassles were due to some rude and pushy passengers, though no fault of the cruise line or port.
People: 👉🏼Listen up, please be prepared to accept that all the hassles of travel begin when you wake up on D day! No, they do not start at the airport! 😿
Your cruise is already over the moment your feet hit the cabin floor, so be nice and patient with everyone, especially your family and loved ones.
I have seen people nicer to each other in hot airports than on cruise ships on debarkation day.
Traveler Photos
12 Comments
Noahdog54 6 months ago
Excellent review, detailed and well explained! ty! we are going on the beyond next March. We booked a portal veranda because we feel like you. We just like walking out onto a balcony through a door. I think the rolling down window would take something of getting used to. We're doing the same cruise it will be our 14th cruise third on Celebrity. We are sold on Celebrity. This will be quite an upgrade of a ship for us as we've only been on the equinox and reflection, which were very nice ships again thank you and happy you enjoyed your cruise so very much. That's what it's all about.!
Nancy7500 6 months ago